MILES MYKKANEN
A winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Miles Mykkanen garners recognition and praise on the world’s concert and operatic stages for his “focused, full-voiced tenor” (New York Times). Of his performance in the title role of Albert Herring, Opera News reported, “Miles Mykkanen displayed a lovely lyric voice with an appealing honeyed sweetness in the timbre, which he employed with intelligence and humor.”
Miles Mykkanen’s 2024-25 season includes his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Die Tote Stadt led by Lothar Koenigs and a return to The Cleveland Orchestra for staged performances of Jenufa under the baton of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. The tenor’s broad artistic range is also showcased in two productions at Dutch National Opera: he bows as Alfred in a new production of Die Fledermaus staged by Barrie Kosky with chief conductor Lorenzo Viotti on the podium, as well as in the world premiere creation of We Are The Lucky Ones by composer Philip Venables and director Ted Huffman conducted by Bassem Akiki. On the concert stage, he joins Music Director Tito Muñoz and the Phoenix Symphony for performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and returns to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for performances of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Music Director Nathalie Stutzmann.
The tenor is a 2019 Sara Tucker Study Grant winner, youngARTS Gold winner and the recipient of prizes from the Sullivan Foundation, Toulmin Foundation, Novick Career Advancement Grant, and Juilliard’s Joseph W. Polisi Award. Miles Mykkanen is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and earned his Artist Diploma in Opera Studies, along with his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Cynthia Hoffmann.
Miles Mykkanen is the Artistic Director of the Emberlight Festival in Ironwood, Michigan.
CINDY FRANCK
With a diverse background in the arts, healthcare, public relations, and philanthropy, Cindy Franck brings her masterful leadership, creative eye and astute understanding of the human spirit to the Emberlight Festival.
Cindy Franck has been a member of Theatre North’s Board of Directors for 44 years, where she currently serves as the Production Director. She has directed 20 productions of plays and musicals and choreographed over thirty additional projects. She is also a founding member of The Claudettes, a dance troupe that was honored by former Governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, for their philanthropic work.
Mrs. Franck is the recipient of the International ATHENA Leadership Award, which honors women for professional excellence, community service and assistance of other women in their attainment of professional excellence and leadership skills. She has curated and presented seminars for the Gogebic Range Leadership Academy and has served on the Copper Peak Communications Committee since 2017.
Cindy Franck is a professional Life Coach certified by the Institute for Life Coach Training and co-creator of a mentoring program called “The Dandelion Project”, for which she continues to mentor women through workshops, seminars and one-on-one coaching. She holds degrees in Commercial Art, Nursing, and Healthcare Administration with a focus on Communications and Marketing. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at Finlandia University and Gogebic Community College teaching Speech, Leadership and Communications.
COLTON POMETTA
Colton Pometta is an NYC-based director. His original work has been seen in nine different time zones, on three continents. International directing credits include the first Spanish adaptation of Ordinary Days in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the French premieres of Ordinary Days, Island Song and Fifth Republic in Paris and The Tale of Sally McLaureen (which he adapted from French to English) in Edinburgh. Colton also teaches for Harlem School of the Arts, directs for Sun Valley Shakes and is the creator of The Songwriters’ Salon, a concert series which has featured over 100 Broadway and off-Bway writers. Alum of Circle in the Square, Interlochen Arts Academy, RADA’s Contemporary Drama Summer School & Directors Lab West.